stick to your greens!

As promised, I have returned with another delicious recipe. Bread. Homemade bread. I’m pretty sure that’s the best kind of bread!

I used soy flour, one of my exciting discoveries, to add some extra protein to the bread. I’m always worrying about getting enough protein, especially for my husband (who only has meat one meal a day now). You can make this without the soy flour, just add an extra cup of All-Purpose or Whole Wheat flour in its place.

Here’s what you need:

5 cups Whole Wheat flour (or All-Purpose Flour)

1 cup Soy Flour (this is adds 1.25g protein per slice)

2 tbs White Sugar

3.5 tsp Salt

3 packages Active Dry Yeast

1/4 cup Vegetable Shortening (Crisco) or Butter (if you use Crisco you need to add an extra Tbs of Water)

2 cups Hot Water

To start, pour the yeast, sugar, and salt into a very large mixing bowl (at least 4.5 qt).

Add the soy flour.

(Optional) Add some spices. I love adding oregano, garlic powder, and rosemary. Don’t go too overboard.If you add rosemary try to crumble it a bit, but be careful because it’s sharp!

Now add 4 cups of your flour. I used Whole Wheat. Measure out 1 cup of flour and set it aside.

Next add your vegetable shortening.

I used a Kitchen Aid mixer to make my bread. I set it on stir for about a minute to mix in the vegetable shortening and while I add the 2 cups + 1 tbs of hot water. Use the dough hook attachment.

Mix until it clings to the hook and the sides of the mixing bowl are clean. I tried to capture this in the above photo but the dough fell off. I almost panicked, but the key to making bread is to show no fear!

In order to get the bread to rise,put a small amount of hot water in the bottom of the sink and set your mixing bowl into the water. Cover the mixing bowl with saran wrap and place a towel over the bowl to keep it warm. Let it sit for 20 minutes.

Grease two bread loaf pans using vegetable oil or spray. This will make it really easy to pop the loaves out once they’ve baked. Also take this time to clean off a counter and lightly flour it. Writing your name in the flour: optional.

Your dough should now look something like this:

Yay! It rose! Faith in self = restored. Now, grab that dough and slap it down on your floured counter and separate into two equal pieces.

Gently ease one into the shape of a rectangle. If you have a rolling pin roll it out. If you are like me, use your fists to release tension and punch it out. (You’re not crazy, you’re getting rid of gas bubbles!)

Once you’ve pummeled the dough into submission, roll it up. Be gentle now. Then pinch the ends together and tuck them under. Gently roll, smush, and pinch your way into creating a smooth ball of dough. The smoother it is, the easier it is to slice. If you don’t tuck the ends in well enough it can start to separate when you cut the bread into slices.

Repeat for the other piece of dough. Place both loaves into the bread loaf pan and brush a bit of vegetable oil over the top of each loaf. Cover loosely with saran wrap and place the loaves in the fridge for at least 2 hours (maximum 12 hours). Yes, I said fridge. They will rise. Have faith!

When you’re ready to bake, take the loaves out and let them stand at room temperature for about 10 minutes. You can preheat your oven to 400 F while you wait. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Once they’re done baking, remove them immediately from the pan and let them cool on a cooling rack under a clean towel. Or demolish them immediately.

Each loaf should make about 16 slices. Each slice is 94 calories// 4g of protein per slice.

If you want to use soy flour you can substitute up to 30% of the total amount of flour with soy flour. I chose to use 1 cup, but I could have used almost 2 cups of soy flour which would make each slice contain 5.25g of protein.

enjoy x

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